The Yu family didn't have time to care about the reactions of these people. Everyone wished they had eight hands.
Ever since he heard about the locust plague, old Yu has been talking about food, food, food! Regardless of his body not fully recovering, he and Yu Hai drove the family's carriage back and forth between the town and Dongshan Village to buy food for the whole family. Not only the several wing rooms vacated by the family as warehouses are filled with coarse grains and fine grains. They also quietly stored hundreds of catties of grain in houses in the town.
Liu Hu led the rest of the family, and under Yu Xiaocao's command, broke off the ripe corn and transported it home by basket by donkey cart.
Yu Xiaocao carefully avoided others, and under the spiritual power of Xiaobutianshi, he ripened the corn batch by batch. With the current ability of Xiaobutianshi, it can ripen an acre of land at once, and perform exercises once an hour. It was not until evening that all the corn in the ten mu field was ripened. Then came an acre of potatoes.
Liu Hu left the half-built house and led his family of five to fight in the cornfield. Except for little Fang Ping who was just six years old, everyone else was good at work. Even Liu Yan'er, who was not much older than Xiaocao, was able to accept the labor force more than half when breaking off corn.
The Liu family sent Yu Hang to the pier, asking him to call back Yu Xiaolian, who was doing business at the pier, and by the way, learn what Yu Hai met the old god to learn from his aunt and wife. After hearing this, Mrs. Han hurried home without caring about helping Xiaolian close the stall. The Liu family planted more than ten acres of sweet potatoes, and they had to take them back overnight. Now the sweet potatoes only grow to the size of a fist, but harvesting a little is better than being harmed by locusts.
Mrs. Liu took her two daughters and rushed to harvest the vegetables in the yard. Take it back and eat it up, it can be made into dried vegetables. It takes a long process to get rid of the locusts. After the locusts, there will be no vegetables to eat for a long time. Even if they are taken back and rotten, it is better than feeding the locusts! Besides, with Lingshi water, it can prolong the preservation time of vegetables and keep them fresh for a while.
After the old Yutou and Yu Hai and his son filled up the warehouse at home, they joined the camp of breaking corn and digging potatoes non-stop. The crawling locusts arrived early, and the Yu family did not rest at night, chopping corn stalks. The family feeds two animals, and there are some rabbits and so on, all of which need fodder. Corn stalks are also transported home for storage.
It took two days and two nights of work like this to return the crops in the field to the warehouse. Even the sweet potato seedlings that had just been planted in the ground were pulled back. Fortunately, the Yu family built a large house with many rooms, and all the wing rooms in the two courtyards were used as granaries. The vegetables in the vegetable garden at home are piled up in a whole room. The family locked the door of the room tightly, and the gaps between the doors and windows were blocked with mud. After everything was in place, the Yu family, who had worked hard for two days, was willing to close their eyes and sleep peacefully.
On the third morning after getting the news, I heard a commotion in the village. Yu Xiaocao's family came out to take a look, and saw a dark gray cloud rolling over from the south. Black clouds are often seen, and this is the first time the villagers in Dongshan Village have seen such a cloud that almost sticks to the ground.
The dark gray clouds drifted closer and closer, and someone in the village yelled: "Locusts, countless locusts! Hurry up and take back all the food and vegetables that have been harvested!!"
In the past two days, some lucky villagers only collected part of the sweet potatoes. The next two days were uneventful, which made some people relax again. There are also some villagers who have taken back sweet potatoes, complaining in their hearts, saying that if the news of the locust plague is false, they will lose half of their grain harvest.
Now I went to look at those panicked villagers, and they felt very happy, glad that they had listened to the words of the village chief and Yu Hai and snatched all the food back. And those villagers who didn't obey the village chief's words were so regretful that their intestines were green. Now if you want to grab them, how can their speed match the speed of locusts? Before they touched the ground, the locusts had already arrived.
Sure enough, it was a once-in-a-century locust plague. Locusts flew over the sky and covered the sky, forming an airtight wall. This army of hundreds of millions of locusts, while flying, is pursuing the "three light" policy-eat all, gnaw all, and bite all! Wherever it passed, the vegetation was eaten up, and all the greenery was spared, even the bark was eaten away. Some young saplings could not escape the poisonous hands of locusts, leaving only a pitiful small section of tree trunk, trembling helplessly.
The army of locusts soon arrived at Dongshan Village. They landed on the old elm tree at the entrance of the village. The old elm tree seemed to be covered with a dense gray-brown curtain. The trunk, branches, and leaves were all covered with locusts. The rustling sound of eating leaves came into my ears clearly.
Dongshan Village was soon covered by locusts. The ground, houses, and farm tools were filled with horrible locusts everywhere, and even the air was occupied by flapping locusts. If a person wants to go out, a dozen locusts can be trampled to death with one foot. One has to cover his head and face with clothes, otherwise the feeling of locusts hitting his body is not good!
Those villagers who did not take back their food and vegetables cried out in regret. Their food was covered by countless locusts almost instantly, and when they went to harvest it, only the poor roots were left.
what to do? In the days to come, they will face food shortages, famine and endless suffering. Seeing their despair, Yu Xiaocao couldn't help shouting: "Locusts are edible! Catch more, and salt them for a while!!"
Only then did the villagers suddenly remember who had never roasted grasshoppers when they were young. The burnt grasshoppers tasted delicious in their mouths, and so did the locusts! Therefore, all the villagers in the village mobilized together, using bamboo baskets, sacks, and fishing nets to pull the locusts that fell on the ground into them.
In the vegetable field in Yu Xiaocao's house, there were still some rotten vegetable leaves, which attracted many locusts. The densely packed locusts were lying on the ground, and the vegetable leaves were disappearing at a rapid speed.
Little friend Liu Fangping was wrapped up so that only his eyes were exposed. He bravely rushed up first, grabbed a locust with one hand, and stuffed it into the bag held by his elder brother. The whole Yu family also mobilized, everyone held a bag in their hand, and quickly grabbed the locusts in it.
There are too many locusts crawling on the ground and flying in the sky. If you have dense phobia, you will definitely faint from fright. Yu Xiaocao, who was so stupid and bold, got goosebumps when he saw it.
Seeing that the fluff on her little daughter's arms stood up, Mrs. Liu thought she was afraid, so she said, "Cao'er, if you are afraid, you can stay indoors. Our family does not point at locusts as rations."
The Yu family has stored so much food, why are they still catching locusts? Seeing the density of the locusts, Old Yu calculated that this plague of locusts would not be so easy to pass. Even if the army of locusts passed by, the number of locusts left behind would not be a small number. It is possible that for a long time, there will be no need to grow crops in the field. There are more than a dozen people in the family, no matter how much food there is, there will be a day when it will be empty. Since locusts can also be used as food, why not catch more and save as much food as possible!
After hearing what old head Yu said, the Yu family all agreed with each other, and they all tried their best to catch the locusts. Yu Xiaocao took out the net bag for fishing and swung it towards the densely packed locusts in the air. Dozens of locusts in the net bag were caught in the net. She shook the locusts caught in the net into the open pocket in Xiao Lian's hand, and continued to catch the locusts with the next net. Although he did not directly touch the locusts, the speed of catching locusts was no slower than others. The two sisters cooperated and soon caught a bag full of locusts. After fastening the bag, Xiao Lian took out another bag half the height of a person, and the cooperation between the two became more and more tacit.
When the vegetation near Dongshan Village was wiped out, the army of locusts flew all the way north. The villagers of Dongshan Village finally saw the color of the sky again after a day. Although the locusts in the sky became rarer, there were still not a few locusts on the ground.
The villagers came out of their homes and looked solemnly at the barren Xishan, which had lost its green color. Then they looked at the village without a trace of green, and their faces became even more gray. Those villagers who lost their food and vegetables in the locust plague squatted on the ground and cried loudly. But what's the use of crying? Every family is short of food, and in the face of a disaster that will end at an unknown time, no one will take food that is related to the lives of their own family members to help others.
The village chief stood up at this time, looked at the villagers who were crying bitterly, sighed deeply, and said, "Don't be too sad! Our Dongshan Village is surrounded by mountains and seas, as long as we work hard, we won't die of starvation! Hurry up!" Go to the town to see if you can buy some food back. I am afraid that the price of food will only rise and not fall in the future!"
These villagers stopped crying and took all the silver deposits at home. The Yu family selflessly drove donkey carts and horse-drawn carts to serve the villagers.
However, when we arrived in the town, most of the grain shops were closed. Although the two grain shops of the Zhou family are still open, the prices are ridiculously high, more than five times higher than the previous days. This is not the most outrageous thing, some unscrupulous businessmen just sit on the ground and raise the price, and the price has soared to more than ten times.
This is tantamount to worsening the situation. The villagers who were short of food, because of the rise in food prices, can buy several times less food. Some people wanted to wait and see for a few days before buying, but the words of the village chief forced them to grit their teeth and exchange all their money for food.
The village head said: "I don't know when the locust plague will pass. There is no food in the field. The price of food will only rise and not fall in the next six months."
The villagers are quite convinced of the village chief. There was a long queue in front of the Zhou family's grain shop, and the villagers of Dongshan Village stood behind them dejectedly. All the people in the team looked serious and said nothing, and the atmosphere was especially dull.
When it was the turn of the villagers of Dongshan Village, a well-dressed servant whispered something in the ear of the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper frowned, and shouted to the team: "There is no food, everyone stop queuing, and go to another place to buy? We are out of food here!"